“The Firebird Dude”: that’s what Premier Guitar recently dubbed Rival Sons guitarist Scott Holiday in the latest installment of their “Rig Rundown” series. Holiday told the magazine’s John Bohlinger he became intrigued with Firebirds after seeing people like Johnny Winter and Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera playing them. The first Firebird in the “rundown” was Holiday’s ’66 Firebird 1.

“It’s really light,” said Holiday. “I use it in the studio all the time—it’s really airy and open and natural-sounding. Right now I’m [also] using it for a song in our set called ‘Thundering Voices,’ in this sort of weird, droned-out open D tuning. As far as playing it, it’s a perfect feel.”

Holiday also raved about “Bluebird,” a 1999 Gibson Custom Historic 1965 Firebird IV Reissue that was actually the first Firebird he owned.

“This is the one that got me into them,” he said. “The whole way I got into Firebirds … we had made our first record … Before the Fire, and I used so many different guitars on it. But I thought, ‘I’ve got to do a new thing.’ I started looking around, and whenever I came across Firebirds it was like, ‘This is calling me.’ I saw this one and felt that it ‘looked’ like the record sounded. It turned out to be even cooler than I thought it was going to be.”